Hoping for 'Audacity' from 'Audacity of
Hope'

by Dr Omar Zia

20 Dec, 2008

Barack Hussein Obama's election win in America has moved emotions
all around the globe. Most, in fact all, of this movement has been
positively generated. Mr. Obama has promised change and this change
is expected as ‘colossal’ perhaps not in quantity but quality. A
violent U-turn will neither be beneficial nor expected from the
intellect of Mr. Obama. Many small but absolutely ethical and
morally correct adjustments will help to steer the global ship in
the right direction. But for them to do that these adjustments must
necessarily be logical and free of political baggage or taking in
consideration people’s belief systems.

Many of those adjustments
have been discussed and can be easily agreed upon around the globe.
Climate change, ethical partnerships and global trade based on moral
principles are some of the subjects which can be easily agreed upon
if America speaks with present moral principles in mind.

Amongst
all these tasks, one which requires immediate and world wide
attention is the threat of terrorism at nuclear and biological
level. To confront and minimize the risk of this threat it will have
to be determined as to which quarters it is most likely to come
from. In that respect if we weigh up the determination,
accessibility and ideological aspirations for any given group, we
might safely come to the conclusion that Al-Qaeda and similarly
inspired groups around the globe, but especially in Pakistan pose an
imminent threat.

Islam is an ideology which binds people together
like no other ideology. This statement might seem laughable at first
considering the fractious state of the Muslim ummah at present, but
when you qualify it with the facts that these fractures are more to
do with impracticality, medieval ness, sectarianism and different
schools of thought in Islam itself than to the overall notion of the
ideology, then this statement falls into perspective. Islamic
scriptures are basically pretty simple and anybody who has seriously
and objectively studied them will concur that the whole ideology is
based on three basic rules.

Islam and its political
doctrine derived from the Quran are supreme and must be spread to
the ends of the earth even at the cost of extinguishing all other
cultures.

All other cultures must
adopt Islamic edicts and political system as they are inferior, and
in case they do not accept Islam, pay jizyah to live as
second class citizens.

Member of Jewish race and
anybody who supports them are to be fought eternally until they are
extinguished.

The rest of the details in scriptures are basically to entice
Muslims to fulfill the above and details punishments, worldly and
heavenly, to be meted out to those who disobey the above basic
principles.

It would be impractical and would lengthen this
writing to unacceptable levels to site examples from the scriptures
to support this argument but anybody who doubts has only to read the
Islamic scriptures, the Quran, Ahadiths and Siratunnabi
as opposed to subjective commentaries on them, to verify the
veracity of the above rules.

Now that it can be safely assumed
that with this kind of ideology to inspire them the Al-Qaeda like
groups are best suited for the next level of terrorism, we have to
ask where they might acquire these weapons.

Pakistan is a
tormented country of 175 million people. It has been toyed with and
broken by corrupt rulers, at times with connivance and help of
America and its allies. In the past few decades the American
shortsightedness and its penchant for supremacy at the cost of
everything else has no doubt played a big role in making the world
what it is today. Many learned people have time and again brought
the world’s attention to this aspect of American interference in
world affairs. But for now coming back to the perceived threat,
Pakistan can be considered a suspect of being in a position of
delivering these weapons in the hands of Islamic extremist groups.
Pakistan is suffering from poor or negligible governance, crumbling
economy, a population sharing the same ideology as the extremist,
poorly crafted institutions at loggerheads with each other and most
importantly, every institution harboring a sizeable number of people
whose sympathies strongly reverberate with the Islamic ideologues.
This lethal cocktail would sooner or later deliver some sort of WMD
in the hands of those with enough determination acquired through
religious faith to cause a catastrophic incident. How can we stop
them? What can the world or America and specially Barack Hussein
Obama do to stop this from happening. America and its people are
dynamic. They are great innovators and inventors. They have the
ability for self inspection and to reverse and put right many
historical injustices. President elect Obama is the living proof of
all that.

What can President-elect Obama do in respect of the
threat posed by the Islamists once he moves into office?

He must persuade America
and its allies to only dispense aid to the developing nations for
strengthening democratic institutions.

Every aid Dollar or Euro
or Yen must be spent to increase secularism and education in the
developing countries such as Pakistan.

He must use his worldwide
influence to persuade Saudi Arabia to take steps to make its own
society more plural and tolerant and stop funding the spread of
Wahabi Islam or any Islam around the globe.

He should use his
incredible eloquence and his Muslim heritage to persuade Muslims to
read and analyze their religious scriptures. Once that is done the
Muslims may realize that it conflicts greatly with present moral
Zeitgeist and may want to follow the West in separating the mosque
and the state.

He should pay immediate
attention to the simmering issue of Kashmir and help bring forth a
resolution for peace from both India and Pakistan.

Israel should be
persuaded to move to pre 1967 borders in return for absolute and
concrete security provided by the rest of the world.

In my view the fulfillment of the above goals would be next leap
forward for the humanity and help bring peace and justice to the
world and make President Obama into a man of century rather than a
man of the year.